The false posts surfaced as thousands of Khan’s supporters gathered in the Sangjani area of Islamabad in support of Khan despite authorities’ attempts to block major roads into the capital (archived link).
The demonstration, led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was the largest in the capital since the retired international cricketer was jailed on several charges in 2023, some of them still before the courts.
Khan insists that the charges against him were designed to prevent him from returning to office.
The same video alongside a similar false claim was viewed hundreds of thousands of times here and here on X; and here and here on Facebook.
However, the clip predates the PTI rally by several weeks.
Independence Day celebrations
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes found the same footage was published on Facebook on August 14, 2024 as Pakistan marked the 77th anniversary of its independence (archived link).
It was published with the caption: “People celebrating Independence Day remained stuck in traffic for hours due to mismanagement. In other countries authorities plan for large crowds in advance. Happy Independence Day”.
The video also contained the watermark of local videographer Jamil Khan Akhunzada, who told AFP he filmed it on Chattar Top, a mountainous region some 104 kilometres (64 miles) from Sangjani on August 14.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and his original Facebook reel (right):
Several buildings in the video can also be seen in satellite images of the area on Google Maps, as shown in the screenshot comparison below (archived link):
Akhunzada posted the same video on his TikTok account on August 15 (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked false claims about the PTI rally in September 2024 here and here.
